— Robots are really useful. One day they will help people do almost ________.
At my primary school, I was one of the smartest kids there. I never 1, but always got near perfect scores on all my tests. I was a child genius (天才), at least in my mind. I was also 2 music and sports. I was pretty sure that once I got to seventh grade, everyone including my teachers would be 3 by me.
But actually, they weren't.
When I arrived at my new class, it seemed that there was always someone else who could do 4 than I. My grades got worse and I needed to actually be studying for my tests. I believed I wasn't smart. I believed I wasn't talented. I believed I 5.
Over the next two years, I had to work very hard for everything I did. Grades were still very low but gradually 6. I worked really hard but was still never the best at everything.
But do I really have to be the best at everything? All the pressure I was feeling, all that 7 when I did wrong, that was me! I was being too hard on myself. In fact, when I did badly on a test, my classmates would never 8 me.
No one is perfect. There will probably always be someone better than me at something. I will never be the number one at everything, and it's really Okay.
An old gentleman whose eyesight (视力) was falling came to stay in a hotel room with a bottle of wine (酒) in each hand. On the wall there was a fly which he took for a nail (钉子). So as soon as he hung them on, the bottles fell broken and the wine split all over the floor.
When a waitress discovered what had happened, she felt really sorry for him and wanted to give him a hand.
So the next morning when he was out taking a walk in the garden, she put a nail on the wall exactly where the fly had stayed.
Now the old man entered his room. The smell of the split wine reminded him of the accident. When he looked up at the wall, he found the fly was there again! He walked to it carefully and hit it with all his strength.
On hearing a loud cry, the waitress rushed in. To her great surprise, the poor man was there sitting on the floor, his face was pale and a lot of blood was running on his right hand.
B . 
C . 
The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Grain Rain (谷雨), as the last term in spring, starts on April 19 and ends on May 4.
Grain Rain comes from the old saying, “Rain brings up the growth of hundreds of grains”, which shows that this period of rainfall is very important for the growth of crops. Here's something that you may not know about the Grain Rain.
⒈________ Grain Rain falls between the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and the temperature rises much higher than it does in March. With dry soil and heavy winds, sandstorms may happen more often. | ⒉________ There is an old custom in southern China that people drink tea on the day of Grain Rain. Spring tea during Grain Rain is good for the eyes. It is also said that drinking tea on this day would prevent bad luck. |
⒊________ People in northern China have the tradition to eat the vegetable toona sinensis during Grain Rain. An old Chinese saying goes “toona sinensis before the rain is as tender as silk (嫩如丝)”. The vegetable is good for the stomach and skin. | ⒋________ The Grain Rain Festival is celebrated by fishing villages in northern China. Grain Rain marks the start of the fishermen's first voyage (航行) of the year. The custom dates back to more than 2000 years ago. |
a. Eating toona sinensis
b. Sandstorms happen
c. Grain Rain Festival
d. Drinking tea
Car-hailing company DiDi signed an agreement with TAL Education Group to provide free online courses for the children of taxi drivers. The courses, worth 30 million yuan, cover all subjects from primary to high school. Children can study courses at home, saving parents' time to spend or pick up children from off-line after-school classes.
According to Zhu Jingshi, vice president of DiDi, all 153 million registered (注册) taxi drivers of DiDi can ask for the courses on the company's mobile app. The car-hailing company will evaluate (评价) the drivers and provide courses on the basis of the time they became registered drivers with the company, the number of passengers served and evaluation from passengers.
The health and education of children have remained top priorities of Chinese parents, including taxi drivers. A survey done by DiDi and TAL showed that although the average monthly income (平均月收入) of taxi drivers is only 6000 yuan, many would like to pay 40 percent of their income for their children's education.
The survey found that most taxi drivers were born in the 1970s and 1980s and worked seven days a week. More than 70 percent of them have children under 18 but very few have time to be with family and children. Only 8 percent of them said they had guided their children in doing homework. Because of these, 60 percent of drivers hope their children could receive the guidance from professional services.
B . 
C . 
Everyone has a beautiful memory about school which is hard to forget. Among many things, relationships are the hardest to leave behind. Some schools try to stop students' puppy love in different ways. Anything about “love” relationship is not allowed. For example, a middle school in Fu'an, Fujian Province forbids (禁止) boys and girls to sit together for meals and forbids boys to look at girls for a long time; a middle school in Luohe, Henan Province sets rules that boys and girls should meet in bright places with at least 5 other classmates, and if they meet in private they will be asked to go home with parents for more than a week and even advised to leave school; a middle school in Jinan, Shandong Province forbids everyone to send food and gifts to or receive them form the opposite sex (异性). It also forbids students to help the opposite sex with bags and coats and requires a “44 cm” distance between boys and girls.
Some students are not satisfied with such rules. “Why should we have strict places for different sexes to eat? It's not using bathrooms!” Some people who care about the intelligence development of the students say that they should be more creative with fewer rules. For this, I'd like to say that middle school students are going through puberty (青春期). It's normal for them to have some feelings for the opposite sex. Schools should provide correct guidance and education instead of giving simple and cruel rules and asking the students to follow.
Lockheed Martin, American space system company (空间系统公司) has found a really cool way to inspire the young minds of today to the research fields in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
It may look like a normal yellow bus, but all the magic happens once you get inside. Meet the “Mars (火星) Experience Bus,” part of Lockheed Martin's new “Generation Beyond” national education program to get the kids joining in studying what goes on outside of our home planet. The bus offers a virtual reality (VR, 虚拟现实) experience making the teenagers feel like they are driving on Mars.
The VR experience was developed by taking advantage of software (软件) created for today's best video games, so you can imagine the picture shown is top level. The kids do seem really excited to see the bus take a virtual trip on the red planet and search unknown places. It's certainly a great way of learning about the universe by virtual reality working on a common bus.
The Lockheed Martin's bus will start a tour in the United States to allow kids from different parts of the country to take a ride in it. The Generation Beyond project also includes an iPhone app for iOS providing real-time information about weather reports for Mars, and there's also a free deep space course for middle school teachers and students.
Mr. Brown: Good morning. My name is Edward Brown. I'm your new , and I moved in yesterday.
Mrs. Smith: Good morning, Mr. Brown. May I help you?
Mr. Brown: I'm trying to do some work now. But I'm afraid your children are making too much .
Mrs. Smith: Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Brown. But you know it's to keep little boys quiet.
Mr. Brown: But I can't stand it any more. I couldn't work and I couldn't at all last night.
Mrs. Smith: I'm very, very sorry. I'll do my best to keep them quiet. But I'm not sure it'll work.
Mr. Brown: Well, it seems I have to put up with it now.
Mrs. Smith: Don't . My husband will come back from business tonight. And the boys always listen to him.
